Does Green Tea Have Caffeine?

There is a wide-spread assumption that coffee is the most effective energy-boosting drink due to its high caffeine amount. However, tea may be just as energizing because it has this element too.

There is a wide-spread assumption that coffee is the most effective energy-boosting drink due to its high caffeine amount. However, tea may be just as energizing because it has this element too.

And while people often tend to think that tea, especially green one, does not possess invigorating properties as much as coffee does, green tea, nevertheless, can be of exactly as much help in providing extra energy and also an option for those who do not consider coffee consumption for any reason.

Among key ingredients of tea are polyphenols, amino acids, carbohydrates, minerals, proteins, antioxidants and also alkaloids, one of which is caffeine.

By definition, caffeine is a substance that ‘increases brain activity, alertness, attention, and energy’. The amount of caffeine differs in black and green tea, with approximate dose from 24 to 39 mg per 8 fl oz serving in the latter. This makes green tea quite a safe drink, as daily caffeine intake between 300 and 400 mg is considered to be moderate and doesn’t bring any health risks for adults.

Still, caffeine may also cause increase of blood pressure, heart and breathing rate as well as dehydration by frequent urination. This means that there are reasons for some people to wish to decrease its intake.

Those who consider this can take the following actions:

Make proper selection of the kind of green tea to drink

Younger leaves will result into bigger amount of caffeine in one’s tea. Also, certain kind of tea leaves’ processing leads to less caffeinated beverage as a result. Among those teas are Japanese houjicha green tea, Japanese genmaicha green tea, and Japanese bancha green tea. Furthermore, there are two processes for tea decaffeination called effervescence, or C02 process (this process is a healthier one for the product), and natural decaffeination (which is, nevertheless, performed with significant use of chemicals and therefore is less healthy for the product);

Check your caffeine tolerance level

As it was mentioned, daily intake between 300 and 400 mg should do no harm, however, it is always worth checking if you are not sure and uncomfortable with the thought of consuming that much of this substance;

Avoid green tea teabags

Teabags are not only leftovers of the production process, what makes them far from the best thing to use, but they also contain way more caffeine than loose tea leaves. So, people who are looking for the least caffeinated green tea should pick the latter;

Get rid of the first infusion

If you are a fan of strong teas, this will inevitably result into significant caffeine amount in your drink. However, steeping tea for two-three minutes, pouring the strongest liquid out and then diluting the rest with more water can help in reducing overall caffeine amount per serving. Still, this can also lead to loss of flavor, smell or look of your tea.

Drink green tea hot

Active elements called catechins and theanine have the ability to reduce caffeine activity when ‘working’ in hot water. The cooler your tea is, the more caffeine it contains.

Therefore, green tea remains quite a good drinking choice for pretty much everyone. Due to such its positive effects as being a preventive measure for cardiovascular disease, a few types of cancer, liver disease, diabetes etc., and also energizing properties it is a highly beneficial part of our general diet. And if it is caffeine that bothers green tea drinkers, there are a lot of options to significantly reduce its amount without having to refuse yourself daily pleasure of having a cup (or more) of tea.